days like pearls.

(not my image)

"And kid, you've got to love yourself. You've got to wake up at four in the morning, brew black coffee, and stare at the birds drowning in the darkness of the dawn. You've got to sit next to the man at the train station who's reading your favorite book and start a conversation. You've got to come home after a bad day and burn your skin from a shower. Then you've got to wash all your sheets until they smell of lemon detergent you bought for four dollars at the local grocery store. You've got to stop taking everything so personally. You are not the moon kissing the black sky. You've got to compliment someones crooked brows at an art fair and tell them that their eyes remind you of green swimming pools in mid july. You've got to stop letting yourself get upset about things that won't matter in two years. Sleep in on Saturday mornings and wake yourself up early on Sunday. You've go to stop worrying about what you're going to tell her when she finds out. You've got to stop over thinking why he stopped caring about you over six months ago. You've got to stop asking everyone for their opinions. Love yourself, kiddo. You've got to love yourself."

Oh. My. Goodness. Seriously. I wish I'd written this. I wish I had thought of this in the early light of morning or the deepness of the night. Things like this, words like these, hearts and souls and the humans who possess them, they touch that inner most well within my own soul.

Words like these inspire me to be…more. To take a long hard look at life and remember that those ordinary moments that we let slip by, those are the ones that hold the most depth. Those days that slip off the string of life like pearls falling gently from their strand, bouncing and rolling away here and there, forgotten under the dresser or rug or bed where we left them, these are the ones that one day, bending down low, we suddenly find and remember like a treasure.

Days like pearls. Beautiful and still, quiet and exquisite, playing out to the song we are choosing to dance. Days filled to overflowing with people, lives intersecting with our own, strung together with meaning and purpose. Perhaps the meaning came in sitting in that one coffee shop, catching your eye, a smile gently playing across your mouth…connecting the string of your life with mine. I don't know your name and you don't know mine, but there it is, just like that. You are, for a moment, silently dancing with my life and I with yours. The song slows as you look up again and now the dance glides to the smile I send back your way.

Days like pearls slipping off their strand. Laughter bubbles from her little body. She looks over at me, gently waving her pudgy little hand, brown curls bouncing up and down with every movement. Blue eyes light up her entire body as she looks at me, waiting for me to take her wave and send it back. I pick up this moment, take in her innocent face trusting that I can do nothing but respond to her and dance out this span of time we are connected in. The song plays sweet and clear as we each dance with the other, squinting eyes and smiling big, beauty spilling from the innocent to the adult she has captured. My heart overflows. And her mama gently takes her hand as she bounces away to dance with others.

The string is strung. Our days are connected. The song is playing, unique to each of our lives. How will our strand connect with those He has placed before us today? Even for the briefest of moments…how will we choose to dance with those around us?

For we are not the moon kissing the black sky. We are human. We are ordinary. We are beautiful. There is a depth we carry, a well deep within us. So, tell him that his eyes remind you of green swimming pools in the middle of July. Tell her the freckles sprinkled across her nose are enchanting. Step outside tonight, take a deep breath, and look up at the stars. They are kissing the black sky. You are not. You are dancing out these moments under their light to the song you have been given. So take your strand of pearls and hold them close. Look at the ordinary, invaluable days you've been given and love them. And above all else, connect your strand with the stranger in the coffee shop, with the baby girl that smiles your way, with the older gentleman sitting on the park bench, or the woman behind the counter in your favorite cafe. These people, these moments, they are always worth it.